France is feeling a lot like Oregon

Valence to Macon

Day 33 - Friday - July 15
Valence to (almost) St. Claire du Rhone

Tour de France here we come.

This is a chateaux not a castle so it didn't need to be on top of the hill.

Scenery from our Breakfast #2 spot. We made much better time today with only 2/3s the headwind as yesterday.

Fruit fresh from the field with tractor still attached. The guys were quite jolly when we took their picture.

Look closely.....that whole wall is a mural. None of the doors or windows actually exist.

This is only a small part of the selection of teak logs at this lumber yard.  This sure makes it easy to match the wood grain.......pretty expensive we bet!

Chapel of the Immaculate Conception in Roussillon.

Just the right place to have our first flat tire of the trip....shade and a wall. It was a sliver of metal near a construction site that caused the problem.

Home for the night is La Daxia campground which is just south of St. Clair du Rhone. The creek is just behind those trees and was our sound of the day.

We edited pictures while we waited for the laundry but are still way behind on the blog.

Day 34 - Saturday - July 16
St. Clair du Rhone to Collenges du Mont d'Or
Magnus came in later in the evening yesterday. He is on his way from Cordoba, Spain to Germany.  He spent the last year in Corboba studying chemistry and is going home to start his masters program. This is his transition time.

It might be a bit chilly but there is NO wind.

We did, however, get delayed by another flat tire, this one right in front of a pastry shop. Doug's timing is really good!

You just never know where the French are going to put flowers.

Cathedral of St. Maurice in Vienne. 

"Only" a church not a cathedral.

We decided to skip as much of Lyon as possible as big cities like this take so much time to navigate. We stayed on the  other side of the river from the main part of the city. We are starting to feel the time crunch for reaching Paris on time.

Lyon.....not the old part.

Who are we to be detered by a closed road? We won't have to worry about cars this way!

They weren't so generous with space between the barricades at the other end.

Lyon is also where the Saone River and Rhone River come together. We are now following the Saone upstream.

Doug spied this fabric store across the street so Donna just had to go in. It must be genetic, she got it from her mom.

Day 35 - Sunday - July 17
Collenges du Mont d'Or to Macon
Wet and more wet. We had a very leisurely breakfast and packed as slowly as we possibly could. 

Full rain gear was still in order when we finally left at 10:30...but at least there was no wind.

Even the sunflowers were keeping a low profile. The sound of the day was raindrops on leaves.

You just never know when you might need a swimming pool on a day like today.

This flower garden caught our eye....we are easily distracted on gray days.

The owner noticed us taking pictures and came out to chat. Flat tire #3 came about a mile later.

Acres and hectares of lettuce.

Paris is on the radar at last. And yes, that is a bit of sunshine.

What does Michigan mean in French?

The Saone River in Macon